London Live

According to the listings in today's Standard, London Live is showing news on both Good Friday and Easter Monday, but not Saturday or Sunday.

IIRC in previous years they've shut down the news operation for all four days.

Its sad that London now sadly has more crime and horrible murders than New York (the numbers are still debatablehttp://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43628494). The city doesnt have a robust dedicated news team that London Live could have been and should have been, First to inform the London populace about the conditions in their city and that doesnt mean just the "rip and read" headlines about yet another murder...blah blah.... But also secondly, be the source where they delve deep into the neighbourhoods and get to know the neighbours and police officers that work the areas plagued by these issues.

Hosting televised townhalls and discussions programmes with local leaders and citizens to discuss the problem. They could help to further foster dialogue and possible solutions. Local news, especially for a city with 8 million people needs more than a 20 min round-up tacked onto the end of the national news to deal with complex local issues that local government and citizens and local organizations and citizens should be able to get togther to talk about. Hyper local topics that would be of little interest of to the wider UK public. Other than the fact crime is clearly on the rise in the nations capital.

Brings to mind the THE CHIEF and THE MAYOR call in programmes on Toronto's CP24. THe programmes air monthly and citizens submit questions to be answers by those who hold public office.



Toronto's CityNews also has segments that feature the Mayor


WFLD FOX 32 CHICAGO created a special segments and specials called "Chicago At the Tipping Point" to discuss the crime issues in the city.
"Tipping Point" Special

Typical "Tipping Point" news segment


The news section of the LL website has little to no news and is still "knowing and celebratory" .....so sad. And still a missed opportunity to be London's voice.

Great examples of local content, but sadly, London seems to regard the whole nation as being worthy of hearing stories that are really local stories with little or no relevance outside of the capital. The city's murder problem, is an example of a local news story that, because of London's history of not having local news on TV until 1977, and that was Thames News with the BBC not bothering until the 80s, big local stories got treated as national news, and really, should no longer be treated as major national stories.

But, this is why in part, the major media feels so London-centric. Similar news stories in other parts of the country, don't get nearly the same treatment as they do when its in London.

It's almost as if it's not viable...

When Sky News can break local London stories, such as the story today of a 78 year old pensioner arrested in Hither Green for allegedly stabbing a burglar, what's the point?

Especially if you employ people that dont know what the heck they are doing when it comes to creating local tv. And you build a system that was designed for local access tv rather than local commercial tv. Big difference.

However often you say this - it doesn't stop the fact that the UK and the US are totally different markets. Interesting as it is to compare - they don't really map well onto each other.

True, but in Paris, which is more comparable to London mediawise, BFM Paris -- a true local news service -- appears to be doing very well.

And however many times you say they are different markets, doesn't negate that fact that the people running the stations dont know that they are doing. Which is clear by what they air. (BMTV Paris is a prime example of how it should be done.) By the way CP24 and CityNews are actually Canadian not American for your information.

OK for US read North America.

Reality is that UK Local TV is being run by a very small number of not particularly well qualified people - as at the salary levels they are offering, they are the only people they can afford to recruit. As soon as they are half-way decent they desperately try to escape to a BBC or ITV regional operation I suspect.

There's no money in Local TV here, particularly now the BBC subsidy is disappearing...

I think also there simply isn't the culture for local television here, where as North America has the local affiliate system. Local tv in Europe is also like the UK a largely low budget affair which staff use as a springboard to get jobs in higher profile organisations.

That’s the same case here. Unless your from the DMA/adjacent to it or start a family with local roots chances are you want to move up to larger markets, more respectable station owner groups (you know who I’m talking about if you’ve seen news lately), or the networks.

We still have a few mom and pop station owners but those are a dying breed. Then there are others where it’s a shoestring budget and are still in SD or lack any ability to go live (even with a BCNG).